Why Men and Women Really Cheat

Cheating is like relationship napalm, and both men and women can be guilty of lighting the fuse. Finding out why we cheat, however, might help save some relationships from the chopping block. And it turns out, men and women stray for different reasons, according to a recent survey by U.K. dating site EliteSingles.

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The site surveyed 667 single men and women about why they had been unfaithful in the past. Interestingly, the majority of men (55 percent) couldn't identify exactly why they cheated—they just did. About a third of women in the survey agreed. The next most popular reason for men was that they simply wanted to have sex with someone new (28 percent of men), followed by being bored in the relationship (25 percent) and being in love with someone else (12 percent).

For women, the top motivation for cheating was relationship boredom, as 35 percent of women said it was a factor. After that came being in love with someone else (27 percent) and wanting to have sex with someone new (16 percent). The least common reason for both sexes was to take revenge on a cheating partner (just 11 percent of women and seven percent of men).

So it seems like men are more likely to cheat for the physical desire of a new partner while women are more likely to stray for emotional reasons. But get this—the participants were also asked what kind of infidelity would be worse: sexual or emotional cheating. In this case, men thought sexual infidelity was worse (65 percent) while women thought emotional infidelity was the ultimate betrayal (55 percent). A bit hypocritical, huh?

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